


and in these times I need a saving grace

by notthebigspoon



Series: Amaryllis [60]
Category: Baseball RPF
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-26
Updated: 2013-02-26
Packaged: 2017-12-03 16:06:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,179
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/700095
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/notthebigspoon/pseuds/notthebigspoon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Hey baby. Good day?”</p><p>	Angel laughs and it starts a rather inappropriate warmth in Hunter’s gut. “Pretty good. I know you’re going to call me conceited later, but I think it’s going to be better for you.”</p><p>Title taken from Stay by Black Stone Cherry.</p>
            </blockquote>





	and in these times I need a saving grace

Hunter’s phone rings as he’s dangling upside down from a set of monkey bars with his nephews hanging onto his arms. He turns them loose and gently places them on their feet, reaching up and carefully tugging his phone out of his cargos. It’s a Pitbull song that Angel and Gregor hate, which means it’s one of them calling. Sure enough, Angel’s smiling face is on the display.

“Hey baby. Good day?”

Angel laughs and it starts a rather inappropriate warmth in Hunter’s gut. “Pretty good. I know you’re going to call me conceited later, but I think it’s going to be better for you.”

“How? Are you in LA?” Hunter demands, dropping onto the ground, groaning at the shock of pain. “Why didn’t you tell me? Are you at the airport? I’ve got the kids but we can come get you.”

“No no, not in LA, but I am in California.”

“I want an explanation in five seconds or I am hanging up on you.” Hunter mutters, shooing the kids off to the sandbox. “Now mister.”

“I’m in San Francisco.” Angel is smothering a laugh at this point. Hunter’s heart jumps. Maybe they’re back in negotiation. “Guess why.”

“No. I’m not guessing, you’re telling me asshole.”

Angel snorts. “I love you too papi. I’m getting a physical.”

“I.. wait, what? You didn’t. You did. FUCKING YES!” Hunter screams it without caring (well, without caring _much_ ) that his nephews can hear him and the other people in the park are staring at him. “FUCK YOU LA! MY BOYFRIEND IS COMING HOME!”

“Don’t act so enthusiastic about it.” Angel answers, smothering a laugh. “I’m happy you’re happy though. Would suck to re-sign and have my boyfriends be bummed out about it.I hate to ask, I know you’re with your family, but mind if I head your way next?”

“You’re an idiot if you think I’d ever not want you around. I’m hanging up on you. I want your ass on a plane after your physical.” Hunter laughs breathlessly, tucking his phone away and grinning at his nephews. “I’ll make you a deal. We go get ice cream before we go home and you don’t tell mom and dad that I said some bad words. Twenty bucks in each piggy bank too.”

The kids agree easily enough and Hunter is probably far more proud of himself than he should be. He’s training his brother’s kids in the fine art of bribery. He justifies it to himself in that it’s his god given right as an uncle to make his brother’s children difficult to deal with after he’s gone. And it works, to a certain degree. They tell Howard that Uncle Hunter got them ice cream, but they’d crossed their hearts not to tell why they’d gotten it. Hunter takes the scowl and the win.

Waiting for Angel to finish things up in San Francisco kills Hunter. The logical part of him knows that a day or two is nothing at all. The neurotic fool, as Gregor calls him, is manic and antsy and ready to believe that something is going to go wrong at every turn. The only thing that saves his sanity is the occasional shot of whiskey and Allison’s apparently bottomless cookie jar.

Howard is entirely too enthused over it, offering Hunter an evil smirk any time Allison or the kids ask about his boyfriends. He isn’t worried about what Howard will say. Not exactly, anyways. His brother has always supported him one hundred percent, even being the one to push Hunter to go after Gregor and Angel when he was too afraid to do it on his own. What Hunter’s afraid of is how much Howard might intend to traumatize them, drill them with questions, demand to know their intentions.

The day Angel arrives, they hear him coming from a mile away. Well, in honesty, it’s more like from the front yard away. Ace tears into the house with his brother and sister on his heels, screaming at the top of his lungs that Uncle Angel and Uncle Gregor are there. Hunter looks up from his book and glares at his brother. Howard smiles innocently.

“Who needs a watchdog when you can train your kids to do it for you?”

Hunter forgoes telling his brother just how much he loathes him in favor of greeting his boyfriends at the door, hugging and kissing them both and blushing all the way down his neck when his sister-in-law tells him to get out of her way so she can hug the eye candy. Gregor is blushing and Angel looks pleased and the kids look absolutely fascinated by the both of them, staring up with wide eyes.

“Well kiddo. You gonna introduce me to your gentleman friends? 

Hunter scowls. “Howard, this is Angel and Gregor. Guys, this is my brother Howard. He’s a jerk.”

“Which totally doesn’t explain why you talk about him like he’s ten feet tall and bulletproof.” Angel answers dryly, leaning in to shake Howard’s hand.

“That’s it. I’m done with all of you.”

He manages to make that true for a grand total of half an hour, sitting on the couch between Angel and Gregor and burying his nose in his book again. He grumbles when Angel lays an arm across his shoulder and huffs when Gregor squeezes his leg and fights a smile through it all. Howard drills them with questions that Angel answers effortlessly and Gregor sometimes stutters through.

By the time Alison is telling Howard to stop picking on his boyfriends and come help her make dinner, Gregor’s face is buried in Hunter’s shoulder while Angel is wheezing with laughter. As soon as he hears his brother leaving, Hunter tosses his book away and turns Gregor’s head, kissing him softly. Gregor is suitably embarrassed and less smug and Hunter’s favorite right now and he tells Angel so.

“Bullshit. I’m staying, you love me most.” Angel murmurs, kissing his neck. “I like your brother.”

“Do not. That is a vicious rumor.” Hunter huffs, giggling when Angel bites him and Gregor kisses him. “Stop mauling me. I mean, not that I don’t enjoy it, but in my brother’s house, it’s just freaky. You’re going to traumatize the kids.”

Angel grudgingly consents to behaving himself, toying with Hunter’s hand while they watch TV with the kids. It’s a theme through the night, Hunter sandwiched between his boyfriends on the couch and at the dinner table and in the backseat of the cab when they’re riding to the hotel after saying goodnight to his family. He holds Angel’s hand in spite of the fact that they could be seen or recognized by anyone.

In their room, in bed, Angel is the one who is pushed into the middle. They undress him together, kiss him together, touch him together. This is theirs every single night for at least the next year. They don’t know what’s going to come after that but Hunter doesn’t care, it doesn’t matter. All that matters right now is Angel’s skin under his tongue.


End file.
